How the Legalization of Marijuana Could Make Texas Billions!

We all know that the state of Colorado recently made the sale of recreational marijuana legal.  This has always been an enormous issue for Americans, especially Texans, to agree upon.  Whether people will admit to it or not, the majority of Texans have at least experimented with smoking weed.  Somehow the same people that try it when they are teenagers become outraged at the idea that their child would even think of following in their footsteps.  All of this needs to change, many people smoke pot on a regular basis and it has been this way for at least two generations, constantly increasing.  

The argument seems to be that everyone will smoke a ton of weed, get in their car, and kill someone.  The people that bring up this argument have obviously never known a "stoner".  "Stoners" do not drive, they sit on their couch and eat snacks, when they do finally get into a car it is to go get more snacks after their "buzz" has worn off.  Another argument is that marijuana is addictive and this is hilarious to me!  The majority of people that I know have smoked pot at least once and not one has ever said that they can't get enough or just need a little more to get them through the day (Including regular smokers).  As for marijuana being dangerous, it does contain THC, which affects the brain.  However, if they are giving marijuana to cancer patients I have a hard time listening to an argument on how bad it is for you.  Just like cigarettes, states can impose restrictions on the amount people can buy, as well as where it can be consumed.  

I believe that the state of Texas could greatly benefit from legalizing marijuana.  The first reason is the amount of tax revenue that could be created.  Colorado expects to extract over $125,000,000 over the next fiscal year in sales tax alone, not including fees and licenses to grow and distribute cannabis.  Texas could see four times as much money because of the population difference.  That means Texas could potentially see nearly half of a billion dollars in tax money, from a plant.  

Where could all of this money be spent?  First, we could copy Colorado and help fund K-12 education as Texas is near the bottom of the country in all aspects of education.  Also, Texas could reduce the high sales tax of 6.25% to around 4% and lower the maximum with local tax from 8.25% to 6.25%.  On top of the increased tax revenue Texas would save around $20,000 a year for each inmate that is in jail for possession of marijuana.  Obviously, some people would still be caught with marijuana outside of what the laws would allow, but the amount of people going to jail for marijuana related crimes would drop dramatically. 

Finally, it is my belief that by legalizing marijuana Texas could concentrate on the drugs that are a real danger (i.e. heroine, cocaine, meth, LSD, etc).  Texas could use a part of the revenue created to expand our drug enforcement agencies and give the Border Patrol the resources necessary to stop drugs from coming into the country.  Also, I would like to think that people would turn to marijuana for a high because they would not run the risk of going to prison. (I probably have too much faith in people)  No matter what happens people will always try to operate outside the law, but at least this way there would be a large task force to keep the really harmful drugs at a minimum.

I am sure that there are some health risks to marijuana, but tobacco and alcohol have risks as well.  I know that passing a law legalizing marijuana would upset a great many people, but they don't have smoke or be around people that do.  Everyone knows that legal marijuana is going to happen one day, so Texas should be progressive for once and take advantage of the benefits before the whole country jumps ahead of us.  I really believe that legal weed would change Texas for the better.  I feel strongly about the benefits without even liking to smoke weed, so if I can get on board with this I know there are plenty of other people who will be in favor of this more than myself.

How Taking Care of Students Can Change Texas!

There are thousands of college students in the state of Texas and many have trouble getting into the school of their choice, much less paying for it.  According to collegeforalltexans.com, the average cost of a full school year with 15 hours for both semesters is $28,159.  Last year 56% of graduates owed money with an average of $24,030, nearly a full year of school.  So how can the state help students?  We need to put more of an emphasis on higher education than standardized testing.  

Schools are allocated money based on how well their students perform on the STAAR test, so naturally they focus all of their time teaching kids the test.  It may be a completely radical idea, but I believe that the state should change their philosophy.  If the state started to pay schools based on the number of students who go to college I believe that the schools would focus on sending kids to college, not the STAAR test.  As a result, schools would hire staff members who could assist students find the money to go to college.   This would have a domino effect, students would be more inclined to receive a higher education, there would be an increase in college graduates, college graduates garner higher wages, and finally the state could extract more tax money.  The state would have more money to spend on what it sees necessary, but also would have more money to give back to students.  I think that if Texas implemented this method, the entire nation would gain from the influx of well educated, hard working people pouring out of Texas.  Also, creating a more educated population could expand Texas' political power by encouraging people to move here.  Most importantly, the rest of the nation would see Texas as an educated place, (not a bunch of backwoods rednecks, bible thumpers, and cowboys) which would give our words more weight around the country.  
I said it may be radical to some people in Texas, but we need to live up to our sense of "Texas Exceptionalism".  If we take care of our students, they will take care of our state.